Communication
by karenvde
Summary: When Karen gets a gun shot at her, she loses her hearing. Matt is the only one there. How do the deaf and blind communicate?
Daredevil sat on a rooftop, listening to the rainy city. It was unusually quiet and Matt had promised Foggy to just leave the petty crimes to the police if it was uneventful enough. It seemed that Foggy will have his way tonight. He heard nothing out of the ordinary, nothing the police couldn't handle. There was a robbery but the police were on their way, the criminal doesn't seem to hear the approaching sirens, he'll get caught within seconds. Matt lingered on this one event for a while until he was sure the police got him.

Letting his focus go for a bit, he heard someone talk about beating someone up. Matt knew who they were talking about. He can handle himself. He'll be fine.

Scanning the neighborhood for more of these kind of things was becoming somewhat monotonous and he decided the city will be fine tonight. He stood up, letting his senses go wild one more time. That's when he heard it. Someone was about to attack Karen. Even though Matt knew Karen was prepared, she must have been taken by surprise. The attacker pointed a gun to her and Matt didn't wait half a second before making his way to her.

Karen wasn't giving up her stuff. He seemed to just want her purse, which had nothing interesting in it, really. But she was stubborn enough not to give it to him. The mugger had little fighting skills and didn't have experience with a gun, which was clear by the way he stood. Matt didn't immediately make a move, though. He was close enough to Karen to kill her if he shot the gun. He would also dislocate his own shoulder in the process, but Matt didn't feel the need to give him tips on how to handle a gun.

Matt let him talk, waiting for the moment he loosened his grip on the gun and maybe moved it away from Karen. When he started shaking, Matt took the chance and attacked him. He got the gun, but not before the mugger got the chance to shoot it. Right when the gun was fired, Matt stumbled back a bit, surprised by how loud this gun was. He heard a ringing in his ears but he soon recovered. The mugger ran and Matt was only concerned with Karen. He had to keep his distance, though. He had not revealed his identity to her yet.

Matt heard someone approach and took the chance right away.

"Call 911," He commanded. The passer-by did as he was told and rang for the police and an ambulance. Matt turned towards Karen, who was now crouching down, almost on her knees. She was soaking wet from the rain, with only a dress and a light jacket to protect her from the cold which now got her shaking. Maybe it wasn't just the cold, maybe the adrenaline is wearing off and she is now just weak from shock.

When Matt heard the sirens of both police and ambulance approaching, he ran for the fire escape and jumped roofs to reach his apartment in time. He knew Brett was on the job, being the one in the car that is now speeding towards Karen.

Matt got dressed in sweats and a sweater after cleaning himself up a bit, trying to make it seem like he just took a shower. He knows he'll be getting a call from Brett to meet him at the hospital.

And the call did come. He let it ring a few times despite being too eager to know how Karen's doing.

"Hello?"

"Murdock, hey." It was Brett, as expected. "Your friend Karen is here, brought in after someone tried to mug her. Wants you to meet her at Metro General."

"Oh my, is she okay?" Matt tried to sound surprised but honestly, no one would believe him right now. He just hoped Brett wouldn't ask more than necessary.

"Yeah, yeah. Look, just get here and I'll catch you up. I'll have someone waiting for you, alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a bit. Thanks, Brett."

He hurried outside, took a cab to the hospital and sure enough, Brett was waiting to escort him to Karen.

"Murdock!"

"Brett?" He had been so focussed on finding Karen's heartbeat that he didn't actually notice Brett waiting for him.

"Yeah, hey. Karen's in the ER, Nelson can't make it tonight. I'll drop you off and right after, I'll have to get back to the station." He seemed to be in a hurry.

"You didn't have to wait for me, I could ask one of the nurses to lead me inside."

Matt noticed something in Brett's breathing. He was going to say something.

"Listen, Murdock, it was an attempted robbery. The guy had a gun. He fired but missed. Person who called 911 said Devil of Hell's Kitchen was there." Matt knew he was holding back something. "The, uh, sound of the gun caused her to have temporary hearing loss. Right now it's hard to determine how long this will last and how much she actually hears, but she's pretty shaken up. I know I didn't have to wait for you but I figured it'd be better for someone you know to tell you this. She was shaking bad when I got to her, she's definitely got a cold." They entered the ER and Matt could feel Karen's presence right away.

"She's in the bed on our right. Just, like, 3 more steps and then turn right."

"Thanks, Brett."

It was nearly impossible for Matt to keep his blind act up with Karen not talking to him. He sat down next to the bed and extended his hand, hoping Karen would grab it. She did. She felt so cold and she was still shaking.

"Hey, Karen." He said. He knew she didn't hear it, but Karen squeezed back. Matt wanted to talk to her, to communicate. Would have been easier if Foggy were here. Matt knew Karen was watching him, he tried to smile for her. He had anger boiling inside him.

Karen's breathing indicated that she was about to say something. Matt focussed on her breathing and touch only and startled when the nurse started talking.

"Woah there, try not to make conversation with her." She pressed a finger to her own lips, telling Karen to keep quiet. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. She was out in the cold rain for a while, is developing a cold as we speak. Her throat is extremely sore, better let it rest for a while."

"Oh," was all Matt could bring up at the moment.

"As she doesn't seem to be physically injured and her hearing should return within a couple of days, max, we can either let you take her home or she can stay here."

"She can come with me," Matt said as soon as the nurse finished talking.

"Alright, she'll just have to fill out some paperwork and you're good to go." She wrote something down, then showed it to Karen who squeezed Matt's hand in order to say thank you.

The fun began at Matt's place. He realized he had left his laptop at the office. He got out a notepad and a pen, thanking God for the fact that Foggy left those here. He motioned for Karen to sit down next to him on the couch after handing her some clean sweats and a shirt. He started writing, hoping it would look okay.

 _Tap shoulder if you can read this_

Tap. And a light chuckle. Matt couldn't help but smile, knowing his handwriting looked like shit.

 _Tap once for yes twice for no  
Okay?_

Tap.

 _Are you okay_

Tap.

 _Do you want a drink_

Tap, tap.

Matt honestly hated writing. He only writes when his signature is needed, nothing else. He considers himself lucky to know what letters should look like. He doesn't know how else he would communicate with Karen.

Karen took the notepad, taking a while to write something down. The scraping of the pen indicated that she was going over her letters several times, making sure Matt can 'read' it. She took his hand, placing it on top of her writing. It was only one word. Her handwriting took Matt a while to figure out, going over it several times.

 _Blanket?_

Tap

Matt smiled and got up to retrieve a blanket from his room. When he returned, Karen was looking through a box of old things he never got to unpack. She must have found it in the corner, near the kitchen. She had found something Matt didn't even know he still had. It was from when he was learning braille. A piece of paper with written alphabet and braille under it. She brought it back to the couch, where Matt offered her a blanket. She took the notepad and made little dents as she looked back and forth between notepad and the alphabet paper.

Matt took the notepad she dropped in his lap, ran his hands over it and felt little dents instead of bumps or letters.

 _Can not believe you can read this_

Matt laughed harder than he meant to, feeling the couch shake as Karen laughed with him.

They eventually fell asleep on the couch, the notebook full of askew dots and awful writing. Karen was leaning on Matt's shoulder. Matt listened to her breathing and her heartbeat until he fell asleep as well. Karen had claimed most of the blanket, but her warmth was enough for Matt to (semi-)comfortably fall asleep.

In the morning, Matt woke up with his glasses, the notebook and the pen on the floor along with the alphabet sheet and Karen on top of him. Matt tried to get away from her grip as he felt his neck being quite stiff. Him waking up and slowly lifting her off him woke her and they both ended up on the floor, laughing.

"Sorry, sorry," Matt said, knowing she would probably not even hear it.

"'S okay," Karen replied with a voice that sounded like it went through Hell and back.

"You hear me?"

Tap.


End file.
